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A solar manufacturing investment cycle appears to be underway in Europe, with equipment suppliers reporting surging levels of inquiries for new production lines. Larger PV wafer formats are driving the change, along with renewed confidence in the outlook for the solar PV market on the continent. To meet the demand, European equipment suppliers are now embracing flexibility.

Xinte unveiled a $197 million plan to raise its polysilicon production capacity to 100,000 metric tons per year in Xinjiang. Longi signed a strategic cooperation agreement with oil and gas giant Sinopec to jointly develop hydrogen and renewable energies.

New research by Aurora Energy Research expects new unsubsidized solar PV capacity to grow to 5 GW by 2025, 12 GW by 2030, 32 by 2035, and 57 GW by 2040.

Projects selected in the procurement exercise will sell power to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) under a 25-year PPA.

Several heavyweights in Germany have announced projects to move forward with green hydrogen. RWE, Uniper and Bosch have all announced large-scale projects and the German government has allocated €52 million for hydrogen research. The European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) initiative is proposing a hydrogen network of 39,700 km by 2040, with further growth expected after 2040.

In the second interview of a series, Arvind Shah, a professor at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, told pv magazine about the challenges facing amorphous silicon cells. He said the tech could be used in some window applications and greenhouses, but not in rooftop projects, as the stabilised efficiency of these cells is too low.

Lechwerke is testing two pilot systems close to existing solar parks. It also aims to build its first large-scale project.

The tracker has a length of 72 meters, which the company says allows for 120 modules per tracker. The new product was conceived as a multi-drive, dual-slewing system that is claimed to have improved overall stability compared to other products and to show a reduced aeroelastic effect.

German scientists have built a solar cell with ultra-thin transparent layers that are claimed to be effective in preventing recombination events. The technology, which has the potential of achieving efficiencies close to 26%, may be easily scaled up for commercial production, according to the researchers.

Canadian compressed air storage specialist Hydrostor said that projects built with its technology have a capex range of between $175 and $250/kWh. The company secured C$4 million ($3.19 million) in funds from Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Innovation Program and Sustainable Development Technology Canada to pursue the development of its global pipeline.